Trying hard to study but too distracted by the view! Really feeling the pressure to improve my Chinese since arriving in Singapore. Of course it's possible to get around with just English, but Chinese and many other dialects of Chinese are equally important in how they influence Singaporean culture and Singlish itself. It's also much easier ordering food at a hawker center in Mandarin than struggling around with English.
I've always been very shy to speak Mandarin though because I'm scared of messing up my tones. I'm always the first to tell people you only learn through making mistakes though, so time to practice what I preach!
In other exciting news, I'm going to be speaking at Women in Language this year, on the 9th of March. I'll be talking about languages and cultural differences in professional, romantic and platonic spaces. More information to follow!
PS as I type this, my Korean and Indian roommates are teaching each other how to speak their respective languages ๐คง๐ languages really bring people together!! #singapore #chinese #mandarin #studyblr #polyglot
A sparkling start to the Lunar New Year. Today's message in church was James 1v7:โจEvery good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.โจ Just like the beautiful fireworks are little lights in the sky falling down to earth, so the Father of Lights showers us with His good gifts. Every good gift comes from God above. I am so grateful and humbled by God's goodness tonight!
Though I am so unworthy, He provides me with a new home, new friends, and new experiences. All very precious gifts. Thank you, Jesus. ๐๐ธ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐
Today has been a great day so far. Yesterday wasn't fabulous and I cried for the first time since arriving, heh. This morning on the way to a cafe, my shoe broke in the train. After alighting I tried to find a cobbler but the nearest was 4km away. While looking for super glue at 7/11, the station manager overheard me and then offered to give me rubber bands to hold my shoe in place! Very helpful! So although I'm walking around with a rubber band on my heel, my shoe doesn't make funny clapping sounds anymore.
I then had tea at Chye Seng Huat Hardware Cafe. It was a lot more crowded than expected, so although I couldn't savor the atmosphere, I enjoyed the black rice ice cream and tea I had.
Now I'm at the National Gallery, waiting to walk in to a talk called Future is Forthcoming: More is More and Less is Less. It's a talk running in concurrence with the exhibition on Minimalism. I should probably have viewed the exhibition first, but now I can look at it with more of an insight into what the artists aimed to portray.
I'm trying to do as many various things as possible during my stay in Singapore. I would have rarely gone to a museum artist's talk alone in South Africa, partly because it was just too unsafe to walk around alone at night in Johannesburg. I'm also going to a break dancing concert soon - something I know nothing about! Trying lots of new things, yay!
#huatah
This evening was rather eventful. I went to River Hongbao and saw some cool floats for CNY, and then walked across the Helix Bridge watching the light show. Then had bubble tea for the second time today at Marina Bay Sands, whereafter my friend and I stumbled across a carnival and went on two rides, nice and high to overlook the city and the bay. Needless to say I'm beyond exhausted, but also beyond happy. I am so in my element here! I can't put into words how happy I feel to call Singapore my home. Y'all might be getting tired of me but this honeymoon phase with Singapore will probably last a very long time, huehehehh. Tomorrow I have some apartment viewings. Let's hope I find my new permanent home soon! Thank you Jesus for this gift ๐๐ in completely unrelated news, train announcements in Tamil are just the coolest. It bugs me that I can read signs in Chinese and Malay but can't read Tamil. Time for a new language? #singapore #marinabay